Gunma Three Mountain Day
A 355 km loop
Open this ride in the planner →
Why this ride
Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. A 355 km loop that starts and ends near Machida, about 6 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes near Ōiso, Kimitsu and Ishige. near Ichihara is the high point.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Machida
fuel
The northern part of Machida climbs into the Tama Hills, where the old ridge roads once linked villages scattered through woods and valleys. Today much of the area is covered by Tama New Town, one of the largest housing developments in Japan, built from the 1960s onwards, but the ridges still offer views, and pockets of woodland, temples and farms survive between the estates.
Machida has a few surprises. The Machida Squirrel Garden lets visitors walk among free-roaming squirrels, a favourite with families. The Tama Hills also hold remnants of satoyama, the traditional landscape of coppice woods, rice terraces and ponds, preserved in parks where volunteers keep the old practices alive. In early summer, fireflies glow along the streams on warm evenings.
As a start and fuel stop, northern Machida is convenient, with service stations and convenience stores along the main roads. The Tama ridge road, which runs along the crest of the hills, offers a pleasant, winding route with views over the estates and the plain, and it leads west towards Hachiōji and the mountains of Okutama and Chichibu.
Traffic is heavy in Machida, especially at rush hour, and the roads are lined with traffic lights. An early start is essential if you want to reach the mountains before the crowds. Once you are past Hachiōji, the roads climb into the hills and the forests close in, and the city feels far away.
- Food stop near Ōiso
food
Inland from the coast at Ōiso, the land rises into a line of low, green hills between Hiratsuka and Ninomiya, and from their tops you look out over Sagami Bay, the Shonan coast and, on clear days, Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountains. The Shonan-daira hilltop park, above Hiratsuka, has an observation tower with a panoramic view, and in Ninomiya, Azumayama Park is famous for its early-spring display of rapeseed flowers with Fuji in the background.
Hiratsuka, the nearest big town, is known for its Tanabata festival in early July, one of the largest in the Kanto region, when the shopping streets are hung with huge, colourful streamers. The town was heavily bombed in 1945 and rebuilt after the war.
As a food stop, the area is excellent. The Shonan coast is famous for shirasu, tiny whitebait, served fresh or boiled on a bowl of rice, a dish called shirasu-don. Fishing ports along the coast have restaurants serving the day's catch, and Odawara, a little to the west, is known for kamaboko, fish cake, and for its castle.
For riders, the hill roads are winding and pleasant, with views over the sea, while Route 1 along the coast is busier but scenic. Traffic can be heavy on weekends, especially near the coast. Fuel and food are available in Hiratsuka, Ōiso and Ninomiya. This is a good place for a long lunch on the way to Hakone or the mountains of Gunma.
- Kimitsu
scenic
Kimitsu runs from the industrial shore of Tokyo Bay deep into the forested hills of the inner Boso peninsula, and the contrast is striking. On the coast, the Nippon Steel works stretches for kilometres, a tangle of furnaces, chimneys and cranes. Inland, within half an hour, you are among steep green hills, narrow valleys and reservoirs, with hardly a building in sight.
The scenic heart of the area is Kanōzan, a low mountain with an old temple at the top and a viewpoint over the Kujūkutani, the ninety-nine valleys. On autumn and winter mornings, mist often fills the valleys below, creating a sea of clouds with the ridges rising like islands. It is a famous sight, and photographers gather at dawn to capture it.
The Kameyama dam lake, further south, is a long, winding reservoir surrounded by forests, and in late November the autumn leaves turn the slopes red and gold. The roads around the lake are narrow and twisty, with little traffic and fine views.
For riders, the inner Boso offers a network of quiet roads with tight bends, steep climbs and tunnels. The tarmac is decent on the whole, though leaves, moss and fallen branches can make the roads slippery, especially in autumn and after rain. Watch out for deer and monkeys, which are common in the forests.
The Aqua-Line, the tunnel and bridge across Tokyo Bay from Kawasaki, lands in nearby Kisarazu, making the area easily accessible from Tokyo. Do your shopping on the coast. The hills are thinly populated, and the stations that do exist inland keep short hours, so leave the bay side with a full tank.
- High point near Ichihara
pass
A layer of rock in a riverbank near Ichihara has given its name to a slice of Earth's history. In 2020, the international body that decides such things named a geological age the Chibanian, after a cliff on the Yōrō river where the last reversal of the Earth's magnetic field is recorded with unusual clarity. The site is small and muddy, reached by a short path, but standing in front of it is a strange experience, a few hundred thousand years of time in a single bank of clay.
Ichihara itself is a big city stretching from the industrial shoreline of Tokyo Bay, lined with refineries and petrochemical plants, deep into the rural hills of central Chiba. The inland part is a world away from the coast: rolling hills, rice terraces, forests and small villages. The Kominato Railway, a charming local line with old diesel trains, winds through the valleys and is especially beautiful during the cherry and rapeseed blossom season.
For riders, the inland roads are the highlight. The Yōrō valley, further south, is famous for its gorges, waterfalls and autumn colours, and the roads that wind through it are narrow, twisting and fun. The hills of the Bōsō peninsula are low, but they have plenty of curves and little traffic outside weekends. Surfaces are generally good, but watch for gravel and leaves on the corners.
Ichihara has fuel, konbini-style convenience stores and plenty of places to eat. The roadside stations in the hills offer local produce and snacks, and the onsen of the Yōrō valley are a good place to relax after a day of riding. The view across the hills, with layers of ridges fading into the distance, makes the climb worthwhile.
- Near Ishige, on the way back
swim
The Kinugawa river looks placid enough as it slides through the rice fields of south-western Ibaraki, but in September 2015, swollen by days of torrential rain, it breached its levee at Jōsō and flooded a vast area of the plain, forcing thousands to flee and leaving towns under water for days. Driving the levee road today, high above the fields, you can see how flat and vulnerable the land is.
This stop sits near Ishige, on the plain between the Kinugawa and the Kokai rivers, a landscape of rice paddies, vegetable fields and farmhouses. Mount Tsukuba, with its twin peaks, rises to the north-east, the only high ground in sight, and on clear days it dominates the horizon.
History runs deep here. In the tenth century, Taira no Masakado, a provincial warlord, rebelled against the imperial court and declared himself the new emperor from a base in this area. His rebellion was crushed and he was killed in battle, but he became a legend, and shrines dedicated to him are scattered across the region. His head is said to have flown back to Tokyo, where a shrine still marks the spot.
There is no swimming here: the rivers are wide, fast and muddy, and the levees are steep. The best you can do is sit on the embankment and watch the herons in the fields.
The riding is flat and straight, with long views across the paddies. Watch out for farm vehicles, narrow lanes and sudden junctions. Ishige, a few minutes away, has the pumps, konbini and family restaurants you need, and on a hot day a tray of cold soba with dipping sauce is the lunch Japan invented for exactly this weather.
- Photo stop in Kukichūō
photo
Kuki is the kind of place that rarely appears in travel guides, a pleasant, low-rise city in the flat farmland of north-eastern Saitama, crossed by railways, rivers and expressways. Kukichūō is its central district, with shops, homes and offices, and it makes a practical stop on the long run north from Tokyo towards the mountains of Gunma and Tochigi.
The area has one unexpected attraction. A short ride away stands Washinomiya Shrine, often described as one of the oldest Shintō shrines in the Kanto region, with a tall torii gate and a quiet grove. In recent years it has become a pilgrimage site for anime fans, after a popular series set some of its scenes there, and you may see votive plaques decorated with cartoon characters alongside traditional offerings.
The landscape around Kuki is the classic Kanto plain: rice paddies, vegetable fields, rivers held in by high embankments, and scattered towns. The Tone River runs to the north, and the levees offer wide views over the plain. The riding here is easy but not particularly exciting, with straight roads, traffic lights and frequent junctions. The Tōhoku Expressway and the Ken-Ō Expressway meet nearby, providing fast access north and around the Tokyo region, though tolls apply.
Kukichūō has fuel stations, convenience stores and restaurants, including the ubiquitous chains serving ramen, gyūdon and curry. A short break here, perhaps with a visit to Washinomiya, is a good way to rest before the climb into the mountains. Gunma's three famous mountains, Haruna, Akagi and Myōgi, rise ahead, with some of the best riding roads in the Kanto region.
- Near Tokyo
finish
When the poet Bashō set out in 1689 on the journey that became The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he left from Senju, on the Sumida river, where friends saw him off. This finish lies in that same old northern edge of Edo, in Arakawa ward, a neighbourhood of narrow streets, small workshops and wooden houses that still feels more like shitamachi, the old downtown, than the glassy Tokyo of Shinjuku and Roppongi.
The Toden Arakawa line, Tokyo's last surviving streetcar, rattles through the district, and in spring the roses planted along its tracks bloom in great banks of colour. Minowa, at one end, is close to the old Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, and temples in the area tell stories of the city's past, from the Edo period to the fire-bombing of 1945.
Coming back into Tokyo after a day in the Gunma mountains, the final stretch is a test of patience. The expressways are often congested, and the surface streets are a maze of traffic lights, narrow lanes and pedestrians. If you filter, do it gently; cyclists, delivery scooters and pedestrians appear from every side street.
Arakawa ward has convenience stores, small restaurants and izakaya on every corner. The local food is simple and hearty: monjayaki, a runny cousin of okonomiyaki, belongs to the old east side, and the counters near Minowa and Minami-Senju grill skewers late into the night. A beer there, among locals who have never been near Gunma, is a fine way to let the mountains go.
- Back to Gunma
finish
Zama is home to an American army base, Camp Zama, which has been there since the 1940s and is the headquarters of the US Army in Japan. The Sagami river runs a few kilometres to the west, and Mount Oyama, a sacred peak, rises on the horizon on a clear day.
For a ride on three mountains in Gunma, this is the long way home. The roads are busy and wide, with bus lanes and lights, but there are also narrow lanes through the hills, with bends and short climbs. The surface is good, with few potholes, and traffic moves steadily. In summer, the Zama Sunflower Festival fills the fields along the river with huge yellow flowers, and in autumn, the area is quiet and clear. Keep to the limits, as police and cameras are frequent.
The Tama Hills have been farmed for centuries, with chestnuts, persimmons and vegetables as the main crops, and small shrines and Buddhist halls stand among the trees. Sagamihara, the big city to the west, was an army town before the war, and the old military roads and tunnels are still used. Machida, to the east, is a hub for the whole area, with a lively market and department stores.
Fuel and food are no problem, with stations on every main road and a large variety of eating places. The Odakyu and Sotetsu lines connect the area to Shinjuku and Yokohama, and the expressway is only a few minutes away. A bowl of ramen at a roadside shop is a rider's reward, and the bakeries near the stations are good.
Stop where the hills open a view of Mount Fuji, which is visible on winter days. The snow cone above the haze is a good end to the day.